Awesome, great work! Aside from stereotypical self-adulations, Dribbble, one of the international design community’s favorite services, does have something to offer. Even if you had already written off Dribbble, read the following article.

In fact, it does happen quite often that I end up asking myself why the respective creator thought he would have to make his “achievement” available to the community. Do you want an example? Here you go:

Even more noteworthy than the questionable design product are the comments on it, going “Smooth,” “Awesome Work,” and “Nice!”. No idea what kind of reflex mismanagement to blame for that. The frontal cortex is full of wonders.

In other cases, there’s at least a “concept” up for discussion, and, due to the enormous size of the platform, there are always people “discussing.”

Dribbble defines itself as “Show and tell for designers.” “Do whatever and talk about it” would be a valid title as well.

In the more extended version, Dribbble describes itself as a platform where designers can show their work, or at least what they’re trying to create at the time, in the form of screenshots. In theory, other community members are supposed to comment on the shown drafts. The creator is meant to benefit from what’s supposed to be a true exchange. As we all know, a factual exchange is always good. With some good will, we could even (mis)understand Dribbble as a tool for design reviews.

This theory doesn’t survive the reality check, though. In the vast majority, the only interaction taking place is giving a “like” to a Shot (which is the name for the individual presentations on Dribbble). Most of the time, there are comments as well. I wouldn’t sum this up as a “factual exchange,” though. The only comments you’ll find are supposed delightful chants, like “awesome,” “lovely,” or “great work.”

The recipients of these comments feel obliged to ecstasize other designers as well, and thus, they wander through Dribbble to leave their awesomes, lovelies, and great works somewhere else. Because of this, the service works like a real Perpetuum mobile where everyone convinces themselves of their top-notch content by assuring others that their content was top notch. To my knowledge, there are no studies on whether the excessive use of Dribbble leads to psychological disorders, like narcissism. However, it is imaginable.

At the end of the day, one could conclude that Dribbble is a superfluous place for designers with too much time and too few customers. However, this would be way too short-sighted. In fact, there’s legitimate use to be drawn from Dribbble. Let’s see how that works.

The keywords are curation and inspiration, as well as a mix of the two. Our crucial tool in the following process will be the Dribbble bucket lists, which you can think of as drawers that you sort different pieces of clothing into.

#1: Dribbble as a Source of Inspiration

The raw size of the Dribbble community alone guarantees that the platform is a representative profile of the branch. Shots are uploaded in quick succession, covering all areas of creative work in the digital space. Thus, for inspirational purposes only, it is worth checking out the “Recent Shots“now and then.

Here, I recommend installing the Chrome expansion “Booom” in advance. The extension, which is also available for Safari, significantly boosts the handling of Dribbble. Using it, the display of the shots is larger, and they can be liked or moved into the bucket list from within the feed. Both actions could previously only be done in the detail view. GIFs automatically start on the list. Booom also improves the display on screens with higher resolution. This way, shots are displayed in better quality. When opening them, the @2x-version is used. “Booom” using an infinite scrolling is useful as well. This allows you to get into a literal scroll flow.

Aside from the shot view “Recent,” there are “Most Popular,” “Most Viewed,” and “Most Commented.” It is possible to filter within these lists. For us, the interesting filters are “Animated GIFs,” and “Shots with Attachments.” More on that later.

The search bar at the top lets you find shots you may be interested in via free text search. If you want to be inspired regarding icons, enter the said term, and see what Dribbble has to offer.

Dribbble: the result of the free text search for icons. (Screenshot: D. Petereit)

At the latest, this is where our bucket lists come into play. For instance, you could set up bucket lists on the different topics you’re interested in. In a bucket list called “Website Inspiration,” you’ll collect appealing web design drafts from now on. Use another one called “Icon Inspiration” to collect parts of the search result mentioned above. Set up as many sensible bucket lists as you can manage.

Adding shots to the list can be done from within the overview if you have installed “Booom.” If not, you have to enter the detail view of the respective shot first. This is done with a click on the preview in the overview.

Bucket lists can be created comfortably, by clicking the bucket icon. This opens an overlay that lets you choose whether you want to add the selected element to an existing list, or if you want to create a new one.

Intuitive management of your bucket lists. (Screenshot: D. Petereit)

In case you have a lot of lists, filter the stock by entering an appropriate keyword, or a combination of multiple search terms. Keep in mind that the results get increasingly narrow the more specific the keyword combinations get. A somewhat generic search is recommended for when you cast your net for the first time.

Up to this point, this is pretty good and useful. However, Dribbble becomes even more helpful when you tap the creative energy of other curators. Next to the bucket icon, you can see how many buckets the displayed shot is in already. A click on the info opens a list of according lists, which is where you find the real gems.

Here, you can see how many buckets the selected shot is in already. (Screenshot: D. Petereit)

The number of people putting tons of effort into this kind of curation is not insignificant. This is a way to get hand-picked shots that mostly deal with the same topic you looked for in the search function. Go through the promising bucket lists, and add the most exciting shots to your lists, or follow the creators of the list.

The display of the bucket list is sorted chronologically, by the way. The buckets with the newest entries are at the top. The further down you get, the more static the lists become, as they haven’t been updated in a while. Lists that are older than three months without new additions can be considered abandoned, and the shots within are outdated.

If you’re already active on Twitter, connecting Dribbble to Twitter is recommendable, as Dribbble automatically suggests people that you follow on Twitter that have an own Dribbble profile.

Over time, the described methods get you a whole bunch of lists with inspiration on the different topics with relevancy to you.

Small sidenote: if you have found a complex icon or another design element that sparked your interest, why don’t you use the shot as a background layer in the design tool of your choice, like Sketch, and use it as a draft? Of course, this is not me suggesting plagiarism. You should always add your personal touch, but this should make things much more relaxed.

#2: Dribbble as a Collection of Resources

Aside from its function as a source of inspiration, a bit of effort can turn Dribbble into a source for helpful design resources. Here, the above-mentioned filter called “Shots with attachments” comes into play. Applying this filter means that only shots with a file attachment are displayed. This is not always, but rather often, a sign of free content.

Using the freebie tag is more reliable. Here, you only get to see shots that have been assigned with the tag “Freebie” by their creators. Thus, you can be sure that these are free-to-use elements. Though, you still have to check the respective usage conditions of each specific shot.

Within the shots from the freebie tag, the order is chronological. The most recent contributions are at the very top, the older ones are further down. Via click, you can change this order to “Popular,” to see them sorted by popularity, although the calculation does not seem fully transparent.

If you don’t want to load the shots right onto your hard drive, which should be the case in a collector session, you can fall back to the concept of bucket lists. You could collect free icons sets in a list called “Icon Freebies,” and PSD templates for websites in a list called “Template Freebies.”

Usually, the shot is downloaded via the external websites of the respective shot creators. Thus, approach the download with the needed caution, and pay attention to the usage conditions.

If you want to make things even more comfortable for you, visit the platforms that have made it their task to curate the best Dribbble freebie shots. This way, you don’t have to search yourself.

Unfortunately, all the external services are only taken care of sporadically, so they’re not very up to date. This goes for Fribbble, as well as Freebbble, and DB Freebies. Since the services have already reached a total capacity of way over 1.000 free resources, searching on there is worth it nonetheless.

Purchasing free products does not have to look and feel like going through a bargain table. Pixelify shows, that it can be both elegant and comfortable.

Where Are the Platforms for the Distribution of Freebies?

Mats-Peter Forss is a minimalist designer from the Finnish place Rauma. He’s been selling his digital design products via the Creative Market for years. He’s also active in the creative social networks, like Behance, for example.

He got the idea behind Pixelify, the service that I’ll introduce you to today when he noticed that neither the popular marketplaces nor the allegedly specialized social networks for creatives offered a simple way of distributing free design elements. While traditionally, the markets struggle with the most radical of all price tags, social networks aren’t really suitable for the distribution.

Pixelify.net: Landing Page (Screenshot: Noupe)

If you want to hand out a font for free, you can already do that. The process is not very streamlined, though. At least, that’s Forss’ conclusion, which led him to create an own service, which strongly resembles the Creative Market in terms of design, but is exclusively dedicated to the distribution of freebies.

Forss’ aim was to gain popularity via freebies, in order to establish his brand, allowing for better promotion of his commercial offers. And, because he’s a nice guy, and also because he knows that he could never fill a popular freebie service on his own, he set up Pixelify as a community.

Pixelify: Best Practice in Every Aspect

Designers from all around the world now have an easy way of handing out their elements via Pixelify. In order to avoid abuse, Forss promises to watch over the entire curating process. After all, Pixelify is not a filesharing website, and Forss isn’t Kim Schmitz Dotcom.

Pixelify is very well made and very easy on the eyes of the viewer. Nothing disruptive, everything flows. The design can’t be criticized Although the service has only been online for a few weeks, its database already contains a considerable amount of design elements.

Clean grid, and easy license selection. (Screenshot: Noupe)

The findability of the resources you’re interested in is provided in different ways. If you’re looking for something specific, use the search field with free text input. If you’re looking for something specific, but you only have a category in mind, use the category navigation. But don’t be surprised that some categories are still completely empty. Forss has already prepared the website for all navigation elements in advance.

Prominently Placed, Simple Licenses Give a Sense of Security

The freebies have one of two possible licenses. They’re either labeled as free for personal use or as free for commercial use. The former means you can use them for all purposes that don’t make you money, including clubs and other non-profits, while the latter means that they’re also fully available for commissions. Another neat thing is the fact that the landing page has a switch that lets you choose to only display elements with a commercial license, only those with a personal license, or to simply show them all.

The operator’s hand-picked recommendations are shown in the lists of the elements with the most downloads, or the most popular, or freshest ones, depending on the upload date. Forss also recommends designers that he considers especially notable.

Conclusion: Add Pixelify to your bookmarks. The project has potential.

Color fonts are, as the name already tells you, colorful fonts. The usage of colors in fonts is not new, as it is almost a staple of graphic design. The new thing about color fonts is the fact that they come with colors and don’t have to be colored manually, as it is the case for your favorite graphics editor.

Now, the Colored Fonts Are Taking Over the Browsers

Depending on their layout, color fonts are very complex in terms of display. Even the usage of multiple different colors within a single letter is possible. In the graphics software section, since version CC 2018, both Adobe giants Photoshop and Illustrator support the new standard, officially called OpenType-SVG-Font.

However, browser support would be way more interesting for daily usage. Here, Firefox and Microsoft’s Edge are the pioneers. Both browsers have been supporting the format for a while. More information on the background of color fonts can be read in this article here at your favorite magazine for designers and developers.

For a few days now, people have been working on Fonts.lol, a new font forge with the goal to exclusively offer colorful fonts of the new standard. So far, there’s a total of two. That’s not a lot. However, the overall market for color font material is still pretty small. Thus, this is mainly about experimenting with the new design element.

Both fonts currently available in Fonts.lol‘s arsenal are free to download and use for personal purposes. Commercial use requires a charged license. In return, the charged version also gives you access to the raw material as an EPS.

In order to adjust the fonts to the desired color scheme, you’d either have to use Illustrator or the Color Font Generator available on Fonts.lol. The latter is the far more comfortable option. Simply define the desired colors via picker or by entering the Hex value. After that, just download the adjusted OTF font to your local hard drive.

The supply of premium fonts is increasing constantly. Aside from the big suppliers, such as Linotype and MyFonts, lots of new foundries with new, mostly unknown designers come to life. Although the prices of fonts vary depending on the provider and the designer, you may invest quite a bit to get yourself a certain arsenal of fonts.

Purchasing Fonts Under Development

The foundry Future Fonts sports a very interesting approach. The provider makes fonts available for purchase during the development process already. This lets you buy a rather cheap font that’s not finished, but already usable.

The version number tells you what stage of development a font is in. A font in version 0.1 is at the very beginning, while fonts with version 1.0 are completed.

Current development stage of a font

Additionally, there’s a detailed list informing you about everything you can expect from the font’s current state. It tells you about the progress of the different versions, as well as the character set.

With the character set, you also learn if the font is already prepared for certain languages and their special characters.

The language support depends on the font designer. Usually, the native language of the creator and all its special characters are taken care of first, before other languages receive support.

There’s information on the kerning and hinting of the font as well. The kerning makes for balanced spacing between individual letters. This spacing is saved in the font, for each letter combination individually. The hinting makes for an optimal display of the font on the screen.

Especially in the beginning, these important font attributes may be missing, as they are more a part of the fine-tuning process, meaning they become relevant towards the end of development.

Another item in the list is the font’s character quality. It tells you whether the individual characters have already been completed, or if there are improvements to be expected. Especially in the early stages, it is probably quite common for characters to be altered visually.

Advantages of the Early Purchase

This brings up the question why you should buy a font that isn’t finished – possibly lacking tons of characters, or coming with unoptimized characters.

If you choose to buy a font at an early stage, it will not only be a lot cheaper. You’ll also receive all following updates up to the final version for free.

So, if you like a font of Future Fonts, it may very well be worth to buy it early, before having to pay the regular price of the full version. Of course, there’s the risk that you don’t like the font in its final version. However, you’ve only paid a fraction of the regular price as it is.

For the developer, this concept has advantages as well. He can have plenty of designers test his font during development, allowing him to gain live feedback. Of course, it is also possible to consider requests from the test customers.

Fonts Ranging From Bold to Viable For Daily Use

Currently, the selection of Future Fonts is very manageable. At the moment, the supply includes about 20 different fonts. This includes striking fonts like “Ohno Blaceface”, or the “Macabre”. Both fonts are at the start of development, but their fresh design seems promising.

Font selection

There are very classic fonts that are usable for continuous text as well. These include the “Messer”, and the “Covik Sans Mono”, for instance.

The “Messer” is a serif font available in the versions “regular”, “condensed”, and “italic”. As it is already in version 1.0, it costs the regular price of 99 USD. Considering it’s a font with three versions, however, that is still rather inexpensive.

“Covik Sans Mono”

The “Covik Sans Mono”, on the other hand, is only in version 0.1, and will already cost you 90 USD. You can expect the price to go up significantly over the course of the font’s development.

Submit Fonts

If you’re a font designer looking for a foundry, you can submit your drafts to Future Fonts. The foundry checks your draft and decides if its quality fits in with the rest of the supply.

By the way, Future Fonts does not force developers to complete a font. In theory, a font can stay in version 0.1 permanently. However, most font designers feel the need to complete a font, partially due to the community feedback.

In any case, checking out Future Fonts is worth it – whether you’re a buyer or a font designer.

If you, as a page owner, think you didn’t have to care about typography, you’re wrong. The legibility of your texts also depends on the typography. Thus, in the following article, I want to cover this typography for everyone.

Naturally, typography has always been one of the most important elements in classic design. When studying graphic design or related subjects, typography becomes part of your daily routine from the very first semester. I don’t want to write theoretical essays on academic levels, though.

This is more about conveying the value of the realization of typographic basics to non-designers. The following tips let you create much more legible text, also resulting in a better findability in the packed world web.

Let’s start with tips for comfortable designs, written by InVision’s designer Luke Jones at Medium. These are three small changes that can be applied to any text with little effort. After the second or third time, these tips will feel natural, as if you had always used them.

Tip 1: Typographic Hierarchy Structures the Text

When writing on the web more or less regularly, you’ll know that keeping a correct text hierarchy is the main factor for the findability of your content in search engines. For that reason alone, you’re probably already paying attention to correct labeling.

However, not only search engines have an easier time working with cleanly structured articles. You readers also profit from a logical division of the content.

Oftentimes, it is enough to focus on the headings of the stages one to three (h1 – h3), the correspondingly smaller running text, and the even smaller footnotes. For that, there are a couple of very simple assumptions, that allow for a clean structure applicable to every text.

This GIF does a good job at showing how quickly an illegible text can be turned into an easily legible one. It doesn’t even take much effort. (Gif: Luke Jones, Medium)

The starting point for the observation is always the continuous text, which is what we write into the p-tags on the web. This text is the index, meaning it keeps the font size of 100 percent. All other elements are derived from that.

According to this, the first step is getting the text to a comfortably legible size. A lot of this is just a matter of taste. For me, this value is at 18 pixels, I don’t want it to be any lower. Common publications are mostly around 14 pixels. No matter which size you define, it is important that it is the foundation for all other elements.

Headlines (hl) should have 180 to 200 percent of the original size, secondary headings (h2) 130 to 150 percent, and tertiary headings (h3) should only be slightly bigger than the running text. In many cases, you’ll see h3 as a simple bold text. You should be able to go up to 125 percent without problems. Footnotes shouldn’t exceed 75 percent of the size of the continuous text.

This way, the sizes of the different text components alone let us create a visual hierarchy that provides orientation, making the reading experience more comfortable.

Tip 2: Generous Line Heights Make Reading Easier

We’ve all been parched in a dry text desert more than once. The simple view at a wild pile of letters lets our mouth go dry immediately. The salvation is so simple, though: just visibly divide the individual lines to bring the reading flow back to life. Even for that, there are simple rules of thumb.

The distance between a line and the previous one should be between 120 and 160 percent of the size of the original text. Jones’ rule of thumb is that a lying lower case h in the original size should fit into the gap without touching the upper and lower tips of the letters in the two lines. Clearly divided lines make words easier to conceive, resulting in a faster and more enjoyable reading process.

The same goes for the correct placement of gaps between the paragraphs. In the past, the hyphenation was simply clicked twice, which usually results in too big gaps between the paragraphs. Thus, it seems better to use the size of the basic text for the gap.

Tip 3: Don’t Let the Lines Get Too Long

Users of large screens surely know the blogs that were set in a way that the width of the text is adjusted to the width of the visitor’s display. This is called fluid design, and it is a valid means of design, but not like this.

Good example for a legible column set, but the lack of hyphenation has a negative effect – see tip 7. (Creator: Pawel Kadysz)

Line lengths of a maximum of 75 characters are considered to be enjoyable to read. After that, there should be a wrap. This results in the multi-column set of the venerable print media. Of course, there are different opinions on this topic as well. You’re somewhere in the wide consensus if you’re ending your lines between 40 and 80 characters.

Single column layouts should end their lines after 65, according to the typography pope Robert Bringhurst. He also said that the required width for the text can be calculated by taking your planned font size and multiplying it by 30. So, if you take my preferred font size of 18 pixels, you’ll get to a value of 540 pixels for the text column.

Tip 4: Use Different Weights of the Same Font

Once you’ve created the basic structures, you can still realize some of the other tips. In order to organize a text in a way that’s more differentiated than simply setting text to bold and other formatting options, it is recommended to use different versions of the same font.

Oftentimes, fonts are designed with a separate weight and are able to be used like that. These fonts are way more attractive than the computer-created version of the used original font.

There are more variations of them, too. If one font doesn’t provide any alternatives, you could also consider using a font from the same family. However, you should always change entire text parts, instead of mixing within the running text or the headings.

I don’t think I have to explain that this tip doubles as a plea for using web fonts. Don’t rely on the conventional system fonts you’ll find on every computer any longer. Instead, take the design wheel and use more interesting fonts, which are even easier to control in terms of their looks.

You should start at the low threshold of Google Fonts, which are very easy to implement in WordPress sites. Recently, my colleague Denis Potschien showed you his must-haves for the year 2018 in this article.

Tip 5: Never Use More Than Two Fonts

I remember that all elements of a presentation used to fly over the screen, animated via Powerpoint, and even included sound annoying sound effects at times. Every font installed on the computer was used in the wildest ways. Sometimes, awful fonts were installed deliberately. Oculists were booming. Well, now I may be exaggerating a bit…

Although there are still ugly fonts that make our eyes bleed today, things have gotten better. We don’t even have to use Powerpoint anymore. Take a look at Ludus, for example. I recently presented it here.

Nonetheless, it is a tip worth considering: never combine more than two fonts in one piece of content. And, even when combining these two fonts, make sure not to use opposite font concepts.

For that, FastPrint has built an infographic that deals with the combinability of the most popular fonts of Google’s free collection. Check it out.

Tip 6: Find Alternatives to Microsoft’s Boring Fonts

If you know Calibri and Cooper inside out, it is time to do something about it. The designers of Plato Web Design rush to help you, and provide you with neat alternatives to the plain Microsoft material.

Tip 7: Use the Automatic Hyphenation

With CSS3, the attribute hyphens has been released. Text passages with this label, like the paragraph tags, are supposed to lead to the display of cleanly divided texts in the user browser. The markup itself is very simple:

p { hyphens: auto; }

Unfortunately, the automatic hyphenation only works in Firefox, Safari, IEll, and Edge. Chrome does not support the attribute on macOS and Opera. An automatically divided column can looks so beautiful, though, as shown in this example from Mediaevents.de, which I was able to capture in a screenshot using Edge:

In the HTML tag, in order for the hyphenation to work properly, English has to be deposited as the document language, like this:

<html lang="en">

If you have the option to set this attribute, you should definitely do so. The legibility of your texts (in the supported browsers) is improved significantly.

Web developers are probably interested in this polyfill solution called Hyphenator.js.

Tip 8: Use White Space, Images and Contrast

Strictly speaking, this is no piece of advice on typography. Since it affects the legibility of texts, however, I think I should still mention it here.

I frequently encounter texts on the web, where I can tell that it is a quality article after the first few lines, but I am still unable to read until the end. If it can’t be traced back to one of the previously mentioned mistakes made by the page operators, it is always the result of a lack of images, or due to the fact that the text area can barely be told apart from the surrounding elements.

Thus, I ask you to integrate images into your text. They loosen the reading flow, and, if chosen smartly, they even contribute to a better understanding of the text. Also, please provide an appropriate amount of white space, which is space not covered by text or other elements. This makes it easier for the reader’s eyes to follow the text flow, rather than having to fight off distractions.

Lots of white space, even if it’s pink in some cases, few elements, very legible overall. (Design: Tubik)

Also, make sure to always add a clear contrast between the text and background. There’s a reason why books are printed with black text on white paper. This contrast is considered optimal. Very bold experiments in that regard will most likely result in you losing parts of your readership.

Typography is More Than Line Distance and Font Types

This should be enough for today. Of course, these tips are merely the tip of the iceberg. So, if you pay attention to all tips in this article, you’re still no expert. However, you’re already providing a lot more for your readers than many other writers or page operators. This is not just important in e-commerce, where it helps purchase decisions, making it turnover-relevant. A legible freelancer blog will also be a lot more popular. In any case, you’re setting yourself apart from the competition.

As you can see, there are only advantages. So, what are you waiting for?

Related Sources:

10 Typography Tricks to Make Your Text Much More Readable | Creative Market

I don’t think anyone would say that there were too few fonts on the web. The opposite is the case; they are a dime a dozen. The problem is that most of them don’t support special characters for various languages. All of the following fonts do just that.

Adam.CG Pro by Shrenik Ganatra

Adam.CG Pro is a sans serif font from the digital quill of the Indian designer Shrenik Ganatra. Since it only provides capital letters, it is not a good choice for paragraphs, but rather for headlines.

License: free to use for personal purposes, a paid commercial license is availableDownload:Adam.CG Pro

AXIS Typeface by Jean Wojciechowski

Axis Typeface supports the special characters of several different languages. Just like Adam.CG Pro, the font only provides uppercase letters and is sans-serif as well.

Mosk Typeface by Iulian Maftei

Mosk is a member of the sans serif family as well and only had lower case letters at first. These were edited to create capital letters. Now, it’s a very consistent, modern, and elegant font.

License: No license declared, but the font is labeled as freeDownload:Mosk Typeface

Butler by Fabian De Smet

If you do want a font with serifs, you should take a look at Butler. There are 14 different versions of it, including seven stencil versions. Butler comes with 334 characters in total. The included variety of different glyphs allow for unique typographies.

License: free to use for both personal, and commercial projects, such as commissionsDownload:Butler

Jaapokki by Mikko Nuuttila

Jaapokki by Mikko Nuuttila from Finland is one of the unique fonts of this small compilation. Aside from the pretty, but rather conventional version, Jaapokki also provides the two alternatives Subtract and Enhance. Subtract forgoes some font elements, while Enhance adds some.

License: free to use for both personal, and commercial projects, such as commissionsDownload:Jaapokki

Blenda Script by Seniors Studio

Blenda Script is a vintage font that can be heavily customized via several stylish alternatives, allowing users to create very different results. It’s a reliable way to set yourself apart from the rest.

License: free to use for both personal, and commercial projects, such as commissionsDownload:Blenda Script

Hallo Sans by Fredrik Staurland

Hallo Sans is a sans serif by the Norwegian Fredrik Staurland, mainly impressing users with its bellied design. Those that thought sanserifs had to be similar to each other are proven wrong by Hallo Sans.

License: free to use for both personal, and commercial projects, such as commissionsDownload:Hallo Sans

Kino 40 by les83machines .

Kino 40 takes you back to the days of silent films. Although, if I remember correctly, I have still seen movie posters on the cinemas of the eighties. Either way, Kino 40 offers lots of retro charm and works well with the current duotone trend.

License: free to use for both personal, and commercial projects, such as commissionsDownload:Kino 40

Akrobat by Fontfabric

The free font “Akrobat” by Fontfabric is a modern sans serif with geometrical, but compact proportions. It is entirely free, including commercial usage, and its eight different versions all support special characters, including 500 glyphs.

The download of all eight versions is done in the OpenType (.otf) format. It doesn’t come with web fonts. I highly recommend downloading “Akrobat.”

License: free to use for both personal, and commercial projects, such as commissionsDownload:Akrobat

Sophia by Emily Spadoni

“Sophia” is a hand-lettered script in the brush look, which doesn’t support all special characters, but at least, provides some. The download package contains a total of three fonts. Aside from the main fonts, you also get two variants called “Sophia Right” and “Sophia Left.” These allow you to make your words start and end with ornaments.

Apart from the fonts in the formats TrueType (.ttf) and OpenType (.otf), the download also includes web fonts in the WOFF and WOFF2 format. “Sophia” definitely belongs in your designer toolbox.

License: free to use for both personal, and commercial projects, such as commissionsDownload:Sophia

Tuna by Felix Braden and Alex Rütten

“Tuna” is a serif font made by the two German designers Felix Braden and Alex Rütten. It consists of five different versions, with the “Tuna Medium,” and its italic version “Medium Italic” being usable for free.

Those that want all version and all of their variants can buy the package via MyFonts for about 220 Euro. Other combinations are also possible. If you’re interested, check out the information at MyFonts. This is also where you find the two free versions “Tuna Medium” and “Tuna Italic,” both unmistakably labeled with 0 Euro.

Felix and Alex market their fonts very professionally, as shown by the very detailed, and appealing microsite on “Tuna.”

The free offer does not include the web fonts. You get two separate Zips with the respective font in the formats TrueType (.ttf) and OpenType (.otf). The fonts can be used in both personal and commercial projects.

I don’t think I need to mention that a font from Germany supports the German special characters, but “Tuna” is also a good choice for all Western, Eastern, and Central European special characters.

Cooper Hewitt by Chester Jenkins

As part of the redesign of the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, an own font called “Cooper Hewitt” was created. The designer Chester Jenkins designed a modern sans serif, fully free to use as open source. The font is available as TrueType (.ttf), OpenType (.otf), and even as a web font.

License: free to use for both personal, and commercial projects, such as commissionsDownload:Cooper Hewitt

Kolikö by Alex Frukta

“Kolikö” by Alex Frukta is no brand new type either. However, it is great for animations and other full-video projects. In that regard, it is predestinated for the increasingly more popular functional animations of modern websites.

“Kolikö” is a sans serif with geometrical shapes. It is provided in three versions as a package of TrueType (.ttf) and web font in the WOFF format. The process is taken care of via Gumroad.

“Kolikö” supports national special characters. Alex Frukta provides the font as freeware for free usage in both personal and commercial projects.

License: free to use for both personal, and commercial projects, such as commissionsDownload:Kolikö

Frutilla by Ian Mikraz

“Frutilla” by the graphic designer Ian Mikras is a script font that will make every calligrapher shed tears of joy. Due to its extravagant lines, it is not a good choice for continuous text, but it can shine on every poster or banner, as long as the topic is fitting.

“Frutilla” is distributed as TrueType (.ttf) and OpenType (.otf). The process takes place via Gumroad. In the OpenType variant, “Frutilla” offers 277 glyphs, and 86 alternative characters. The German special characters are fully supported, and there are no restrictions regarding usage. “Frutilla” can be used for commercial purposes as well.

Ian Mikraz offers more free fonts on his site. Definitely, check it out.

License: free to use for both personal, and commercial projects, such as commissionsDownload:Frutilla

Black Animal by Faisal Tanjung

“Black Animal” by Faisal Tanjung is a brush font. The letters look as if they were drawn with a rough brush. These fonts are excellent choices for striking slogans, posters, merchandise, and other purposes where bold typography matters.

“Black Animal” comes as TrueType (.ttf) and OpenType (.otf). The OpenType comes with an addition called “Black Animal Swash.” The process is handled via Sellfy. Here, enter a zero as the paid amount, and finish the process. The download link is sent to you via mail.

On the Creative Market, there’s an expanded paid version of the same font with a few creative features.

License: free to use for both personal, and commercial projects, such as commissionsDownload:Black Animal

TM Vinograd by Vova Egoshin

At a glance “Vinograd” is the most unusual font of this overview for sure. This impression is empowered by the half-open versions of the font. You don’t see that very often. The closed fonts are much more comfortable on the eye, without being usual.

“Vinograd” comes in two versions, with a half-open and a close variant each. The font supports many languages. “Vinograd’s” four variants come as TrueType (.ttf) and OpenType (.otf). The OpenType format contains about 600 glyphs.

License: free to use for both personal, and commercial projects, such as commissionsDownload:Vinograd

Vintage & Eroded Font by shiraz & daryan

This font is very unusual. It is literally purely herbal and is only suitable for a particular kind of project. But where it fits, it is almost unbeatable. However, you should know that it can’t be installed as a classic font. Instead, the single letters are available as TIFF, which need to be arranged in an appropriate app, such as Photoshop, Illustrator, or even Indesign.

License: free to use for both personal, and commercial projects, such as commissionsDownload:Vintage & Eroded

Orkney by Samuel Oakes

“Orkney” is an unfussy, geometrical sans serif which is best used in sober, modern presentations. It’s a perfect choice for continuous text and headings alike. It is not good for eyecatcher-tasks, though.

“Orkney” comes in four versions in the format OpenType (.otf) and is under the SIL open font license, meaning it is possible to use it in commercial projects. Aside from the German special characters, “Orkney” also supports Romanian, Turkish, and many other character sets.

License: free to use for both personal, and commercial projects, such as commissionsDownload:Orkney

Dimbo by Jayvee D. Enaguas

Dimbo by Jayvee D. Enaguas takes inspiration from old cartoons. Thus, it is a great fit for everything that is meant to be striking. You probably won’t use it to design continuous text, but the logo-like font is suitable for headings.

License: free to use for both personal, and commercial projects, such as commissionsDownload:Dimbo

Tusj by Magnus Cederholm

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Tusj by Magnus Cederholm is a highly sophisticated font which works best in large sizes. With small sizes, you can’t really appreciate the complexity of the font. Thus, you should use Tusj for headings, or even as a component of a logo.

License: free to use for both personal, and commercial projects, such as commissionsDownload:Tusj

(The article was originally written in German language by our author Dieter Petereit for our sister magazine Dr. Web.)

As a designer, you can never have too many fonts. The projects are way too diverse, and the supply is massive: this makes it easy to always use new fonts. Handwritten, more rough fonts have been the center of attention in the past months, but classic sans serif and modern, yet bold fonts are in demand as well.

While we already checked if the fonts are also free to use for commercial use, you should still always double check that yourself. When in doubt, ask the originator.

]]>Google Fonts You Should Use in 2018https://www.noupe.com/essentials/icons-fonts/google-fonts-use-2018.html
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Like almost everything else in graphic and web design, fonts are frequently exposed to trends. The number of fonts grows constantly – including Google Fonts – so finding something new is always easy. The following fonts and font combinations are the ones you should try in one of your next projects in 2018.

Big Headings With Serifs

Depending on the zeitgeist and the technological development, some fonts are bigger and some are smaller. In terms of headings, especially large headings have been trending for a while now. Instead of plain sans serif fonts like “Helvetica”, serif fonts are becoming more and more popular, as they provide more elegance and sleekness for the design.

“Playfair Display”

Thus, the “Playfair Display” is a great pick for this kind of headings. Especially the bold italics give your oversized headings a special flair. In contrast to that, there’s the “Raleway“. It’s a sans serif font, but it’s much more customized and concise than other sans serifs.

“Raleway” With “Playfair Display” in the Heading

Massive, Sans Serif, Yet Playful

However, massive sans-serif fonts will also dominate the web design of 2018. To increase the massiveness even further, headings are often written in all caps. A good example for that is the “Rubik Mono One“, which is only available as an upper case font as it is.

“Rubik Mono One”

The brute feeling of this very bold font is relieved by the slightly rounded edges. These fonts are also great to add gradients or background graphics.

For the running text, a good complementary font would be another sans serif one, like the classic “Open Sans”.

“Anton”

An alternative to “Rubik Mono One” is the “Anton“, which seems to be even more massive due to its slim tracking and thick line width. It can be loosened a bit by adding a background graphic. As the font leaves little white space, detailed images can also work as the background, instead of a font color.

Sans Serif With a Handwritten Flair

Handicraft is trending as it is. This is shown by the “Craft” movement, which started out with “Craft” beer, but has now expanded to different products. In terms of typography, fonts with a handwritten flair to them are on the rise as well.

“Titan One”

The “Titan One“, for example, is a sans serif font with a handwritten touch, due to its curves and different stroke widths, making it a good choice for craft products.

“Pacifico”

For those that want to go even further into the handwriting style, I recommend the “Pacifico“, which is an actual handwritten font. Due to the somewhat thick stroke width, it is more suitable for headings.

Once again, the “Open Sans” compliments both the “Titan One” and the “Pacifico”, making it a good additional font for the running texts.

“Amaranth”

The “Amaranth” looks like a handwritten font as well and can be read in all four classic versions. Thus, it’s suitable for running texts as well.

Solid Sans Serif Fonts Beyond “Open Sans”

It doesn’t always have to be fancy, big, and spectacular. Sometimes, a modest sans serif font is just what you’re looking for. You’re not forced to fall back to classics like “Arial”, “Helvetica”, or newer, but not trendy “Roboto” and “Open Sans”, either.

“Work Sans”

The “Work Sans” ranging from “Thin” to “Black”, is impressively simple, yet fresh and modern. The font is very easy to read and looks great in both very small and very large font sizes.

“Nunito”

The “Nunito” is another well-elaborated font, which covers everything from “Thin” to “Black” in 14 different versions. The rounded edges give the font a slick look. It’s easy to read as well. In order for the rounded edges to stand out, it can also be used as a heading.

As a Tribute to Popular Styles: Classicism and Art Déco

People like to quote and reinterpret popular things. The same goes for fonts.

“Vidaloka”

If you like something classicistic, you’ll enjoy the “Vidaloka“. This font is reminiscent of the “Bodoni”, a classic font from the 19th century. However, the “Vidaloka” is less stiff but has the contrasting stroke width that the fonts of that time are known for.

The “Vidaloka” harmonizes well with the sans serif font “Lato”.

“Poiret One”

The “Poiret One” looks similar to the art déco style, with its subtle lines, the curves, and the slightly tilted horizontals, giving off a playful and elegant vibe at the same time.

Conclusion

There is no lack of variety in new fonts – but finding the right font is not always easy – and I’m sure this year will bring us many interesting websites with fonts in the foreground which will be both dominant and playful. They will be joined by many universal fonts for daily use, suitable for almost any purpose.

Icons are some of those design elements that you can’t have enough of. You should grasp the extensive collection of the IconBros.

Quickly Growing Collection of Free Icons in the Vector Format

This collection already contains over 700 pictograms, and you can watch it grow. The grid on the landing page always shows the newest symbols, and also includes information on when they were added. While writing this article, new icons were added every couple of hours.

Excerpt From the Icon Repertoire. (Screenshot: Noupe)

The IconBros’ design style is indigenous, which is why the pictograms are suitable for the daily bread and butter business. If you’re looking for something flamboyant, the IconBros are not who you’re looking for.

This down-to-earthiness is what I like the most, as the icons are not inappropriately striking in design. Since there’s a vector version in the SVG format for every icon, I could make changes, such as altering the line width, or the coloration of individual areas, afterward.

Aside from the ready-to-use pictograms, you also get the raw material, which is not the norm for free offers. Most of the time, they are limited to the distribution of PNG formats in different resolutions.

Liberal License and a Set of Premium Icons

The license is liberal. It allows for the usage in personal, and commercial projects, such as client commissions. The IconBros don’t even ask the users to mention or otherwise attribute them. It doesn’t get more generous than that.

If you want to support the illustrators, this can easily be done by purchasing some or all of their 25 premium icons. After the purchase, the same license applies. Each icon costs between one and two USD.

Somewhat Inconvenient Individual Access. (Screenshot: Noupe)

Handling over 700 free icons is a bit tedious. While the free text search function allows for flexible finding, you can only download one icon at a time. You choose one symbol from the grid, click it, go to the icon’s detail page, and select the download as an SVG or PNG file. If you want both formats, you have to click both buttons. This is a complex process if you want to compile a topically coherent set.

Free Icon Font for Registered Users

The fact that IconBros works with user accounts is convenient. It’s entirely optional but comes with the advantage that you can label icons as favorites, making them easily accessible via the menu item Favorites, and preventing them from drowning in the grid of hundreds of pictograms.

Excerpt From the Icon Font. (Screenshot: Noupe)

Additionally, registered users also gain access to the IconBros icon font called Linear Basic. It contains 130 icons geared to each other. It is distributed as a ready-to-use Zip with all required components, including the actual font as EOT, TTF, SVG, and WOFF.

Logo editors as web apps can be anything between great and terrible. DesignEvo goes into the direction of “great”, although it’s not perfect.

DesignEvo Complements the Product FotoJet From the Same Company

There are many reasons for a quick, simple, and free logo draft. Being stingy does not always have to be the drive for the attractiveness of free solutions. Of course, a tool such as DesignEvo is a valid option for everyone on a tight budget. But designers and professionals, in general, should take an impartial look at the brand new tool as well.

DesignEvo Landing Page. (Screenshot: Noupe)

Regular readers of our magazine know already know the Canva-rival FotoJet. Just like FotoJet, DesignEvo was developed by the team of PearlMountain, which was mainly known for graphics desktop applications in the past. With FotoJet and DesignEvo, they are now taking a consistent route into the web, while offering installable applications of the two newcomers at the same time. Thus, you can already download and use DesignEvo as a Mac app. The Windows version is still in the works.

The Logo Design Process, Quick and Dirty First

I have to design logos on a relatively regular basis. The procedure is always the same. I ask my client if he has any ideas, and I sound him out regarding the purpose of his business. There has yet to be a situation where this kind of conversion is not enough for the first set of drafts.

I sit down in front of my computer and pump out five to six suggestions. They are not radically different from each other. Of course, they are not really elaborate either, because there is no need to put work into the detail if the client could simply send my draft to nirvana by shaking his head.

Instead of creating the draft set with Illustrator and other massive tools, I now like to use an array of small web tools, which will be joined by DesignEvo from now on.

The First Draft With DesignEvo

DesignEvo is a really good choice for a quick draft. Under the hood, there are more than 3.000 templates from all kinds of sections. The tool is very to use and even available in different languages. Change the language via the turquoise gear icon at the bottom right corner of the editor window.

Start your draft by selecting a template, or click on the button Restart at the top right of the editor. As a fast draft is our goal, we’ll obviously start with a template. To do so, we can either scroll through the categories, or search through the templates via free text.

Searching by Free Text Entry. (Screenshot: Noupe)

As I want to create a quick draft for Dr. Web Media (home of Noupe Magazine and others), I’m looking for a medically oriented template, and decide to use a two-color draft, as Dr. Web has always been designed using two colors.

After template selection, there is the option to enter a company name and slogan, which are then placed according to the template. This is not necessary. We can also start without text, and add new or further text whenever we want to.

Now, in the editor window, we find ourselves in a work environment with very intuitive controls. On the left, we can switch between icon, text, and shape, accessing the respectively available elements. Under the icon tab, we can search for pictograms via free text, and move them onto the workspace with a click.

Intuitive Editor With a Right-Sided Workspace. (Screenshot: Noupe)

The same applies to text formatting in the sense of font selection. Even complex, colorful fonts are available. DesignEvo considers them art fonts, in contrast to the conventional fonts, which are labeled as classic.

If we need additional shapes, like frames or geometrical shapes like circle or rectangle, we can find them in the shape tab.

Once all desired elements are in our workspace, which we can enhance or shrink via pixel input, we can start editing. A click activates the respective element, opening a toolbar above the workspace, which offers editing options that make sense for the given element.

Changing the size of individual elements is done by simply dragging the corner of an element. The circle symbol on the top right of the element lets you rotate it. We can also sort elements in layers, creating overlapping designs. Changing colors using solid basic colors, or a free color picker is possible, as well as the simple creation of gradients, or manipulation of opacity.

I started working on the selected template with options that are self-explanatory and got to the following result in about two minutes.

The First Draft After Two Minutes. (Screenshot: Noupe)

The icon Preview at the very top of the browser border gets us to a preview of our logo on different media, like a t-shirt, or as a notebook, or even as a business card or website header.

How does the logo look in real life? The preview can show you. (Screenshot: Noupe)

In order to be able to download the logo as a JPG, PNG, and transparent PNG, DesignEvo demands a share on social media.

How to pay DesignEvo. (Screenshot: Noupe)

The download works without doing so. However, there is a license that only allows you to use it if you publish a tweet, or another post. This post is not related to the actual work, as it is generic. That doesn’t hurt.

Criticism and Conclusion

Unfortunately, we don’t get the logos in vector format. Because we can toy around with the size of the workspace, the required size is just another setting. Sadly, the editing options are not consistent throughout all elements. For instance, we can add shadows, highlights, and silhouettes for fonts, while that doesn’t work for visual elements. Here, the reduction to the smallest common denominator is the only solution.

Although it is possible to create a user account, logo drafts cannot be saved once they were created. I couldn’t find any benefit to a registration. So you might as well not do that.

Overall, DesignEvo is a modern logo editor, that is a lot better than the previously presented Logaster. The small bit of criticism only marginally tarnishes the good impression.

You should always remember that the tool is completely free. And if we consider it a gift, it’s a rather big one.

There are tons of design elements on the web. But if you’re not looking for something standard, you need to dig deeper. Creative Fabrica is a new go-to for your search.

Amsterdam: Creative Home of the Creative Fabrica

If you’ve been to Amsterdam before, you know that the city is full of creativity, and a source of inspiration in itself. Thus, it’s no surprise that our today’s newcomer, Creative Fabrica, is a small business residing by the famous canals in the heart of Amsterdam.

Not too long ago, the team behind Creative Fabrica was in your position, running a design agency. Thus, obviously, they also know how hard it can be to find the right design material. So, we can expect some expertise in that regard.

Creative Fabrica: Landing Page

The Main Focus Lies on Bundles and Flatrates

When you first take a look at the Creative Fabrica website, the first thing you’ll notice is the unconventional design style. The way the offers are displayed already shows you that you’ll find things you won’t find anywhere else.

Starting as a provider for out-of-the-ordinary fonts, Creative Fabrica has expanded to the distribution of graphics and other elements as well. They gathered a lot of free material. However, this is still a charged offer for the most part.

Creative Fabrica has a portfolio of over 3,600 fonts, as well as over 500 sets with thousands of individual graphic elements. The portfolio is growing continuously, as Creative Fabrica is not only expanding their stock with their own designers but also allows external graphic designers to sell their elements in the Fabrica, similar to competitors such as Creative Market do. Of course, the main reason for a specific exclusivity and the Fabrica’s unique handwriting is the fact that they’re working with their designers.

Creative Fabrica: Fonts

You can purchase individual elements, but buying one of the offered bundles is better in any case. One thing that I haven’t seen like this before is the option to tailor your own custom bundle from the given supply. This package, called Pick ‘n’ Mix, allows you to freely choose thirty elements, and buy them as a bundle for 15 USD. Similar to various deal platforms, the offers on Creative Fabrica are available for a limited time only.

Creative Fabrica is both a market for individual products and a deal provider that turns individual products into bundles. If that’s not sufficient, you can also make use of the brand new flatrate offer.

Creative Fabrica: Graphics

Here, you pay a monthly fee of 29 USD to gain access to the entire product range, including the fonts and graphic elements. If all you need are fonts or graphics, you can book either one as an individual flatrate for 19 USD a month.

License With Commercial Purpose

Every element, except for fonts, comes with a commercial license, allowing you to use the product in client projects as well. As usual, the distribution of the elements as such is prohibited. However, you can create and sell mugs, t-shirts, or other merchandising using the material from the Creative Fabrica.

Fonts can either be bought under the personal or the commercial license. As you can imagine, the personal license does not allow you to use the product commercially, so it’s not suitable for professional use. If you want to use a font for a web-based customer project, the client also needs the respective license. When using the font to create a print project, your own license is enough, as you don’t pass on the font files. Sounds complicated at first, but it’s not.

The nearly 200 freebies also come with the commercial license.

No Download Without Account, Payment Also Via Paypal

To be able to use the offer of the Creative Fabrica, you need to set up an account. To do so, either use your Facebook account or use your email address and create a password. Once you’re registered and logged in, downloads start immediately, as long as the selected product is a freebie.

Creative Fabrica: Fonts With a Meaningful Preview

In this context, it is also worth mentioning that you don’t have to install a software to be able to use the offer. We’ve seen this differently often enough, so we’re happy to see that Creative Fabrica forgoes these nuisances. I was especially pleased about the option to test which special characters are available for each font via text input. Once again, this is not the standard either.

For the payment of the charged elements, Creative Fabrica offers Stripe for credit card payment and also Paypal. If you run a design business in Europe, and you have a sales tax ID, you can avoid the billing of the VAT from Creative Fabrica’s side. Otherwise, you’ll have to pay the legal taxes on top of the labeled prices, depending from where you connect.

Conclusion: Creative Fabrica Belongs Into Your Toolbox

Creative Fabrica is already very well equipped, especially in terms of fonts. This is due to the fact that fonts marked the beginning of the catalog. Here, you’ll definitely find something for any project. Worth a dedicated mention: you can easily test which special characters are available via text input.

The number of graphic elements is growing rapidly. The prices are moderate. What can I say? Creative Fabrica should definitely be a bookmark in your toolbox.

Fitting icons support written statements, and are visual breakpoints. The colleagues of Swifticons are some of the most diligent icon painters of the scene. By now, their icon set contains 2,480 icons. Now, they decided to toss 152 towards the web designer people.

Swiftcons has picked symbols from the categories Gadgets & Technology, and released them for free download. The inevitable smartphone is included, as well as the indestructible mouse. C64 experienced nostalgics in their fourties can enjoy a floppy disk. Those searching for meaning might find their key to wisdom.

All you have to do to get the content is enter your email address. You’ll receive a mail with a 0 USD invoice.

The full set of icons is 98 USD, by the way.

In another email, the download button will lead you to your goal. The free icon set is available in the formats AI, Sketch, PNG, SVG, and EPS. The users of the MacOS tool IconJar get a chance with a compatible format. There is nothing stopping you from using it in customer projects either.

Straightforward font management is a must in the workspace of every designer. The free Fontbase provides just that and even has a couple more ideas to offer.

Universal Tool for the Three Main Operating Systems

The reasonably new tool Fontbase is available for free on your Mac, Windows, or Linux device. Originally, Fontbase was made to simply manage your system fonts. Soon after, the option of folder synchronization was added. This allows you to synchronize project-related fonts, and remove them after the project’s completion.

Fontbase Organizes the Installed System Fonts. (Screenshot: Noupe)

With the new version 2.2, which has been out for a couple of days now, Dominik Levitsky, the Ukranian developer behind the tool, added the broad portfolio of Google Fonts to the synchronization option. Google Fonts is only the first font provider that can be used via Fontbase. There are more to come. A Discover function for newly released fonts is said to be in the works as well.

Fontbase: Very Simple Integration With Google Fonts

The integration with Google Fonts can only be described as perfect. A single click on any font of Google’s massive portfolio activates the respective font in your system. When you’re done, you can remove it using the same method. There is also the option to deactivate all active Google Fonts at once, with a single click.

Fontbase Accesses All Google Fonts. (Screenshot: Noupe)

To test which fonts work well together, or which ones you can integrate into your layout ideas, use the function Preview. It allows you to adjust different text parts with varying parameters of design.

Fontbase is a software that you need to install on your computer. It’s not a web app. There’s no web-based version either. Fontbase supports the three major operating systems macOS, Windows, and Linux by default.

In the preview, you get to work on the look. This one is unfit but bold. (Screenshot: Noupe)

Fontbase is Free But Can be Supported

Fontbase is free. However, the developer also offers a so-called Awesome version. It costs 3 USD a month, or 29 USD a year, and is supposed to offer an additional set of features. I couldn’t find out which features that could be. It seems like the only thing exclusive to paying subscribers is the display of the fonts as a grid, rather than a list.

Nonetheless, it is fair to pay the three bucks a month, if you integrate Fontbase into your daily routine. Dominik’s motivation is sure to increase proportionally to the number of subscribers. And when it comes to a tool this important, that alone makes it worth it.

]]>https://www.noupe.com/design/made-designers-designers-free-service-fontbase-organizes-fonts.html/feed1The Ugliest Fonts Are Used in the East of the USAhttps://www.noupe.com/design/the-ugliest-fonts-are-used-in-the-east-of-the-usa.html
https://www.noupe.com/design/the-ugliest-fonts-are-used-in-the-east-of-the-usa.html#commentsFri, 27 Oct 2017 08:00:40 +0000https://www.noupe.com/?p=103243]]>

I’ll just say Comic Sans. If you have positive memories related to this font, please send me an email. You can imagine that I don’t expect a lot of mail on that.

Of course, Comic Sans is only the fontificated ugliness by word usage, but it surely is not the only ugly font that the world makes its inhabitants put up with. The infographic platformers of Venngage took a look at font usage on their service, and investigated the relation of font and geographic location of the user.

According to that, the ugliest fonts are mainly used in the East of the United States. At least, that’s my evaluation after viewing the infographic provided by Venngage. The worst of the world’s fonts are also commonly used in Seattle, in the far West. This is no surprise, though, as this is where Comic Sans was created.

One can only assume, but not prove, that there’s a connection between the election of Trump and the incredibly bad font taste of a majority of the US’ East Coast. Washington is well represented in the found problem areas, though. At least, Comic Sans would be fitting for most of the decrees of the White House’s orange ruler. This way, the documents would visually confirm the disastrous impression that their contents are conveying reliably.

However, Trump alone can’t be the reason why Comic Sans rears its ugly head again. If you want to know more, you should read the very detailed article by Venngage, dealing with the following infograpic: